TPT January 2007

From the AMERICAS

› Lone Star steel parent Lone Star Technologies Inc said it has entered into a joint venture with Hunan Valin Steel Tube & Wire Co Ltd, one of China’s largest steel makers, to produce seamless tubular goods in Hengyang, Hunan Province. Lone Star is acquiring a 40 per cent stake in the Valin subsidiary Hengyang Valin MPM Steel Tube Co Ltd for $132 million in cash. The agreement gives the Texas-based company exclusive North American marketing and sales rights to at least 200,000t annually of the Chinese production of oilfield tubular goods. The two Valin mills in Hengyang have an estimated annual capacity of approximately a million tons of pipe in sizes up to 13 3 / 8 " in diameter. The joint venture will also have small- and large-diameter billet casting capability, including two electric arc furnace melt shops and OCTG finishing units. Lone Star, which is to provide significant technical and related operational support, expects eventually to pay up to a total of $238 million for 47 per cent of the joint venture. › Tenaris SpA (Buenos Aires, Argentina), the world’s largest manufacturer of seamless steel tube and pipe for the oil and gas industry, said on 2 October that its purchase of Maverick Tube Corp (Chesterfield, Missouri) in a deal valued at $3.19 billion would be complete by October 5. Tenaris agreed last June to buy Maverick Tube for about $2.6 billion to capitalize on surging demand for OCTG from North American energy producers. Tenaris is also a leading regional supplier of welded steel pipes for gas pipelines in South America. The company has manufacturing facilities in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Romania, and

and ultra-long-range jets, and 1,300 large jets. Deliveries of new low-cost very light jets – not included in the forecast figures – ‘are poised to accelerate rapidly’ this year, the company said. › A shortage of information technology graduates from Western universities is forcing companies to draw on talent from developing countries to meet their research requirements, Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates (7 November) in Moscow. In a 30-minute speech at the 2006 Microsoft Business Forum in the Russian capital, Mr Gates – himself a computer software architect – emphasised the need to keep up the pace of research in the IT sector. “There is a shortage of IT skills on a worldwide basis,” the co-founder of Microsoft (Redmond, Washington) said. “Anybody who can get those skills (in Russia) now will have a lot of opportunity.” Lone Star Steel Co (Dallas, Texas) announced these price increases per net ton: $40 – standard and line pipe, all sizes OCTG: Tubing, alloy and carbon: $50 – 2 3 / 8 ” to 3 1 / 2 " Casing, carbon (includes normalised N-80 and Wildcat 80): $50 – 4 1 / 2 " to 10 3 / 4 " Casing, alloy: $25 – 4 1 / 2 " to 9 5 / 8 " Around the companies . . .

84

J ANUARY /F EBRUARY 2007